Elizabeth Micaković

January 2011 to April 2011

The Shock of the New: Literature 1900-1953.

This course functioned as an introduction to the literary texts which have been integral to the formation of the Modernist literary canon. From Joseph Conrad and Edith Wharton, to T. S. Eliot and Elizabeth Bowen, students were encouraged to consider how these newly-emerging forms of prose, poetry and drama evolved within their political, aesthetic and social contexts. Particular emphasis was placed on introducing students to the rudiments of critically assessing these texts within their historical contexts, culminating in a contextual research exercise that required students to thoroughly research a key historical event or movement integral to a particular text from the module. Summative assessment was by a 2000 word essay and a written exam. The skills acquired throughout this course provided students not only with a greater insight into the historical and cultural origins of Modernism and its literature and art forms, but the necessary skills required for an extended critical piece of work. For further details of this course please see the Modernism and Modernity webpage

September 2007 to July 2010

University of Salzburg, Austria

I taught English language and culture courses at both undergraduate and Master's level at the University of Salzburg between 2007 and 2010. Ranging from seminars on composition and register to advanced grammar, a variety of assessment and teaching methodologies were employed to immerse students within the language and its culture, and to encourage an active understanding of their concomitant relationship. In order to achieve this, drama was a key component of language and culture courses, and students would perform and, later, critically discuss scenes from plays (for example by Alan Bennett and Willy Russell), and television scripts (such as My Family, The Royle Family, and Monty Python). Students were encouraged to consider how these plays and sitcoms reflected the social and political challenges of the time, in particular how the dialogue (and its breakdowns) suggest changing social dynamics.

In 2009 I convened and delivered the compulsory undergraduate lecture course "The Civilization of the British Isles". This was an historical lecture course which covered the period from Stone Henge to the 2010 General Election, and was designed to supplement a literature course covering texts from a similar period. Literary texts were often utilised to demonstrate their important positioning as historical documents, whilst students were often presented with a variety of historical accounts of the same period or event to encourage them to reflect on historical discourse as organic rather than static. Assessment took the form of an end of term written exam.

All courses were taught and assessed in English, and assessment was set within the parameters of the European Framework of Reference for Languages.